- Wed May 03, 2017 4:07 pm
#398114
Hey everyone,
My trusty 2000 Pathfinder might be an ideal truck for me, but it's getting too old. I'm looking to buy a new Subaru Forester, but I'm really concerned about its lack of low range (lower than "first gear"). With my pathfinder I always use low range to go downhill because otherwise engine braking is not strong enough even in first gear and it speeds up too much, so I have to apply brakes every ~10 seconds for 10 minutes, which seems excessive to me.
If you drive a Forester, could you please comment on its ability to go downhill with engine braking, without applying breaks excessively? I'm looking at the model with CVT transmission and paddle shifters.
The hang gliding roads around here are compacted earth / gravel forest service roads with a pretty stable 10-13% incline all the way (typically 2000 ft elevation gain until launch). You would not want to travel faster than 30 km/h on those roads.
Other than this low range issue I'm pretty confident in Forester's offroad abilities. Our roads are not too bad, they're just inclined quite a bit. Buying a Forester will save me at least $10K vs other options that have low range like a 4Runner / Tacoma / Cherokee.
I've read many forum threads both on this forum and on Subaru forums but didn't really find any information on this. I'm asking here because our use case of prolonged downhill ride is somewhat specific to hang gliding. Thank you for any advice.
My trusty 2000 Pathfinder might be an ideal truck for me, but it's getting too old. I'm looking to buy a new Subaru Forester, but I'm really concerned about its lack of low range (lower than "first gear"). With my pathfinder I always use low range to go downhill because otherwise engine braking is not strong enough even in first gear and it speeds up too much, so I have to apply brakes every ~10 seconds for 10 minutes, which seems excessive to me.
If you drive a Forester, could you please comment on its ability to go downhill with engine braking, without applying breaks excessively? I'm looking at the model with CVT transmission and paddle shifters.
The hang gliding roads around here are compacted earth / gravel forest service roads with a pretty stable 10-13% incline all the way (typically 2000 ft elevation gain until launch). You would not want to travel faster than 30 km/h on those roads.
Other than this low range issue I'm pretty confident in Forester's offroad abilities. Our roads are not too bad, they're just inclined quite a bit. Buying a Forester will save me at least $10K vs other options that have low range like a 4Runner / Tacoma / Cherokee.
I've read many forum threads both on this forum and on Subaru forums but didn't really find any information on this. I'm asking here because our use case of prolonged downhill ride is somewhat specific to hang gliding. Thank you for any advice.
Last edited by raquo on Wed May 03, 2017 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
—Nikita